FRIDAY, June 19, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Life expectancy of adults with HIV infection is nearing that of individuals without HIV infection, according to a study published online June 15 in JAMA Network Open.
Julia L. Marcus, Ph.D., M.P.H., from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston, and colleagues evaluated data from insured adults with and without HIV infection (39,000 and 387,785 individuals, respectively; mean age, 41.4 years) treated at medical centers of Kaiser Permanente in Northern and Southern California and the Mid-Atlantic states of Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (2000 through 2016). The authors sought to estimate the gap in life span and comorbidity-free years by HIV status.
The researchers found that from 2000 to 2003, overall life expectancy at age 21 years was 37.6 years among individuals with HIV infection and 59.7 years among uninfected adults compared with 56.0 years and 65.1 years, respectively, from 2014 to 2016. Individuals with HIV infection who initiated antiretroviral therapy between 2011 and 2016 with a CD4 cell count of ≥500/µL had a life expectancy at age 21 years of 57.4 years compared with 64.2 years among uninfected adults. The expected number of comorbidity-free years remaining at 21 years of age was 11.3 for individuals with HIV infection and 26.6 years for uninfected adults from 2000 to 2003, with a difference persisting but decreasing over time to 9.5 years for individuals who initiated antiretroviral therapy at a CD4 cell count of ≥500/µL.
“The results suggest that life expectancy of adults with HIV infection may be near that of life expectancy of individuals without HIV infection, but greater attention is needed to prevention of comorbidities among individuals with HIV infection,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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